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There Goes My Hero

Tonight

Before the Fall

Good morning people. I haven’t really had any motivation or inspiration to write here for a while, but i though i’d let you know i’m still alive, hanging in there. Those of you who know me knows what day tomorrow is. The day when i FINALLY see Underoath live in concert and not only that, i get to interview Tim (McTague; guitarist) before the show for www.hcsanomat.fi, i’m super-excited about that and also hopefully after the show i’ll meet the rest of the guys. I’m also looking forward to see Architects live, they’re opening up for Underoath AND yesterday i noticed there’s a third band, a local band called ‘V for Violence‘, who after a quick listen on their myspace page didn’t sound all that good and it kinda makes me wonder why. I think Architects and UO is a great deal in itself already. Other not so good thing for the show is that it is K-18 and because of that not many tickets have been sold, such a shame; maybe next time they come to Finland they should pick a venue like Nosturi. But anyways, i dont really care, this is the moment i’ve been waiting for years. It’s hard to explain what this show means to me, especially at this point in my life with all it’s letdowns. One more thing before i leave you for now, is that i got a call from Nokia (since their now reducing employees) from my boss and she told me my job is secure, so i will continue there for now, but i will actively look for a new job, i’ve had about enough of Nokia as a human being can have. Ok, without getting too depressive i will go and come up with questions to ask Tim tomorrow and mentally prep myself for the moment i’ve waited for. Take care you all!

peace love and understanding,
- pooki

Walk On By

Greetings! Been a while so let’s get up to date. Last week i had a week off from work so i took the train down to Kokkola to visit my family and friends and to pick up my green tiger, in other words my car. I had a really great time in Kokkola; hung out a lot with my cousin Mika (aka Miami Mick) and my good friend Jarno (aka Jape). Also spent some time with my sisters and her kids; and of course my dear parents. Good times. While i was in Kokkola Endrive’s new album “Atonement and Wrath” finally got mixed and the boys sent it to me to listen to and i gotta say, it sounds mighty fine! Can’t wait for the moment that we can release it. One final mix will be made to it next week and then it needs to be mastered. We also need someone to release it, but everything will work out. Things are really moving nicely forward with the band at the moment. Last practise Niko had a new song idea/riffs which was quite punk-oriented and those who know me well know that im not a huge fan of playing punk beats on the drums, so kinda as a joke i did a blastbeat (only i halfed the bass drum strokes since im not that fast) and Niko really liked it, so for now we’re sticking with it. It has two verses of that drumbeat and hopefully i will be able to pull it off everytime live or when we sometime maybe even end up recording it. I also scored a “job” at two online music webzines (one in finnish and one in english) and as my first interviw i’m interviewing Underoath in Helsinki on the 26th, i will talk more about this soon…

peace love and understanding,
- pooki

Battle Frontier

Greetings earthlings! Wanted to take a short moment to talk about Endrive’s past show that took place on Friday right here in Turku at the legendary TVO (i will continue the Estonia story on a later note). I had been up since like 2.30 am (due to my morning shift) and had a really rough day at work (physically AND mentally) and i took a nap in the car while we drove home from work and as soon as i got home around 3pm. Ville picked me up around 5 and we drove off to our rehearsal space (also known as Mordor) to pick up my drums (in all its glory and sparkle), Niko’s guitar amp and cabin plus the guitars (bass and regular). We then drove off to TVO and arrived there around 6 and i started to setup my drums, which was to serve as the kit for all bands that evening. When i was done i just sat around trying to stay awake until the guys (and few bandmember girlfriends) of Abduktio showed up with lots of gear and after a short wait the soundman arrived and so did the third band of the evening, Polemarch. Soundchecks were started by Abduktio followed by our short soundcheck (without Niko, he had some workstuff) and Polemarch’s. At 10pm i went home to watch a bit of olympic icehockey, semifinal between Finland and USA and after 13 minutes when finland was trailing by 6-0 i gave up and went back to TVO in time to see Polemarch’s whole set. They had developed so much from the last time i saw them live, energetic and powerful!

So then it was our turn; to be honest i didn’t have high hopes for our set. Some were tired and some pissed off and some even both and we got so “used” to the energetic crowds and shows we did in Estonia. But i was wrong, i was VERY wrong. From the first note onwards the whole band gave their everything and even more, even to the point of ridiculousness. But it worked, we were a totally new band since the last time we played our dear hometown. Finland may have lost that night but Endrive won, BIG time! After the show i seriously felt like i had given my everything, i rocked so hard i almost threw up at some points, i need to get back in shape =D. Thanks for everyone who showed up (despite the disasterous hockey game) and made the evening a success. After us Abduktio went on stage and ended the already succesfull evening with a bang! Tampere knows their stuff after all (both Abduktio and Polemarch are from there). So one more succesfull night at TVO, too bad the wonderful city of Turku, the cultural capital city for europe in 2011, is closing down TVO to make it a bicycle and laundry cellar (for real!).

Endrive TV: Estonian Takeover

Tere Tulemast (Part One)

Hello there everybody, I’m finally back home in Finland, well i’ve been for a while now. We had a great weekend with Endrive over in Estonia, better than any of us could’ve expected. I’m going to work in a few hours, but when i get back it’s video editing time and the videodocumentary will be up tomorrow. But here’s a text version of what went down in our beloved neighbour country Estonia…

FRIDAY

We went to our rehearsal space early Friday morning at around 4.15am, packed what we needed and started driving towards Helsinki. The drive went well and we were early in the harbour and had to wait a while until we could drive onboard. While we were having breakfast on the boat before the departure they announced the ferry would take six hours, insted of the normal three; due to the thick ice so they had to take a longer and safer route, luckily we were not in hurry so this was ok for us. Start of the trip was quite boring, we were just laying around in the hallway, but then the guys bought a soft football and played some, while i was being lazy, i filmed it. We finally arrived to Tallinn at about 1pm and went to a supermarket to get something to eat before starting our drive to Valga, where the first show was. The drive went quite well and we arrived to the venue ‘Rockiklubi’ in Valga around 6:30pm and the other bands were still soundchecking. After a while we did ours and the sounds, behind the drums alteast, were heavenly. People started to show up as the first band, local “She Walks Drunk” took the stage and rocked with some good ol’ metalcore with lots of breakdowns, pump that iron! After them was a band called ‘Submentic’ whose style was also metalcore, but a bit more diverse. We got to know this band a bit better during the evening and we had a great time with them. Then it was finally our turn, and boy what a show that was. I had the best sounds behind the drums like never before, we had a good crowd and a fair amount of kids going buckwild in the front. I had some difficulties with the drums, like the snare stand sliding towards me all the time and also my ridecymbal stand fell off the drumriser at one point, but tht show went on and luckily it didn’t break. The bass player of Submentic rushed on stage and put it back in its place while i was playing, thank you. After our set we got compliments from all over and we gave away copies of our first EP for free for the locals. We spent the night at the venue, in another room with a couch and some matresses. I had no sleeping bag so i slept in my sweatpants and winter jacket on a couch and i was freezing and had a hard time sleeping, but managed to get some sleep. All in all the day was a success and an evening i wont soon forget!

To be continued…

peace love and understanding,
- pooki

Last.fm Charts – Week 06

Top 10 Artists

1. Underoath
(117 plays)

2. Katatonia (51 plays)
3. P.O.D. (49 plays)
4. Silverstein (41 plays)
5. The Used (31 plays)
6. Tool (26 plays)
7. Deep Insight (24 plays)
8. Inhale Exhale (24 plays)
9. Falling Up (24 plays)
10. Memphis May Fire (20 plays)

Most Played Track:
The Ataris
“Summer ’79″ (6 plays)

total tracks played: 855
unique tracks played: 687
unique artists played: 142

source: last.fm with winamp, iPod and Spotify

Estonian Takeover

Howdy doodle! Time for a quick update. I’m just on my way to the police station to pick up my new passport, since Endrive will be travelling to Estonia this coming weekend for two shows; Friday in Valga at Rockiklubi and on Saturday in Tallinn at Rock Café. We’ve never played in Estonia before so will be interesting to see how people like (or dislike) our stuff, hopefully everytihng will go smoothly. We’re leaving early Friday morning to Helsinki from where we take the ferry over to Tallinn and then drive to Valga; approximately 250km south of Tallinn, right at the Latvian border. So you can count on a videodocumentary from the whole trip sometime next week. The weekend after that, on friday the 26th we’re rocking out right here in our precious Turku at TVO together with Tampere hardcore acts Abduktio and Polemarch (which includes two members, Sauli and Valtteri, from my old band Starlight Nine). So three shows in two weeks, not too bad. Well, now i gotta go to the police station so see you again later.

peace love and understanding,
- pooki